Knight was recently featured in an episode of VH1's Bands Reunited, during which host Aamer Haleem tracked down all five of the original Kids to see if they'd perform their first show together in practically a decade. Though both Jordan and his brother Jonathan agreed to the performance, the rest of the group declined, and the reunion never took place.
Knight can currently be seen on another VH1 program, The Surreal Life, which documents the exploits of six mismatched celebrities, including Brazilian classical guitar virtuoso Charo; Uncle Joey, himself, Dave Coulier and Public Enemy second-in-command Flavor Flav.
Greg Gabbard, owner of City Lights Records and 19-year State College veteran, hasn't seen New Kids records flying off the shelves.
"Somewhere in time I did sell something by New Kids on the Block," Gabbard said.
Gabbard, describing ticket sales as "sluggish," suggested that Knight's career upswing isn't coming quite as fast as all his TV exposure would have you believe.
"[If he's going to revive his career], it's not going to happen in State College," Gabbard said.
Jordan's most recent musical release is Jordan Knight Performs New Kids on the Block - The Remix Album, although a new solo album is in the works.
Dave Wells, director of operations for Crowbar, suggested that the stars aligned to get Jordan here.
"When I had the opportunity to book Jordan, there was talk of several VH1 specials he might be involved in," Wells said. "And then, of course, The Surreal Life really took off. But the timing certainly seems to be right for this show."
Wells intimated that Knight won't just stick to his more recent original material at Tuesday's show.
"He'll do some old stuff as well as some new stuff," Wells said. "The response has been great."
Cassandra Logan (senior - English and secondary education) was there for the New Kids fad.
"I wasn't too into them, but some of my friends were pretty obsessed," Logan said. "They liked everything about them, from the synchronized dances they would organize at sleepovers, to that ultra rad sleeping bag you know you used to have. I did, however, I think one of them was dreamy sex-bomb cute ... Donnie, maybe?"
Opener Honestly wants to make one thing clear: Jordan Knight might be a boy-bander, but Honestly is far from it.
"It's so funny, this pairing, since you really couldn't pick two more different styles of performing," guitarist Rob Attaway said. "Jordan's crowd is so good for us, though, since I think it's about 90 percent women, and our music definitely appeals to that demographic."
Though hesitant to cite direct influences, Attaway threw a few names out that should distinguish the band from Knight.
"Our music is very much in the vein of a Jimmy Eat World or a Switchfoot," Attaway said. "Justin [Land], our vocalist, is really strong, and our melodies are really well put together."
Through 150 shows in the last year (in support of the band's Have a Nice Life LP), Attaway claims the band's only getting tighter.
"It's almost like a situation where we're played through the record so many times, and even the new songs we're working on, that we'd sort of like to go back and record
it again, knowing what we know now," Attaway said. "Touring as much as we do, our live shows have really become our selling point."
